Pages

Saturday, July 4, 2015

How to Register with Charity Commission?

Charity commission is all about non profit organizations.When you should register your charity:
In general any charity organization located in England or Wales can get registered with Charity commission. Also another eligibility criteria is charity organization should have income at least £5,000 income per year. In the case of Charitable incorporated organisation(CIO) - They are by default eligible for registration in spite of their income.

Apply only if below questions are answered during setup of charity:

What is your charity’s purpose?

You should have answer to charity's purpose. What is the purpose this charity is planning to achieve. A charitable purpose can include one or more below points

charity is for public benefit

charity can falls in 1 or more descriptions of purposes listed under Charities Act

What type of charity structure it will support?

First you should decide that you want to start charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), or you are planning to start a charitable company or trust.

Types of charity structure - Mainly there are 4 types of charity structures:

charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)

charitable company (limited by guarantee)

unincorporated association

trust

You should decided the right structure depending on whether you want to have a corporate structure or you want create a wider membership.

Is governing document is ready?

While writing charity governing document you should consider below points

it should contain the charitable purposes ('objects')

what it will follow its purpose. example: money source

who all going to runs this charity ('trustees') ?

Who all will be the members and charity people?

how meetings will be conducted?

how trustees will be appointed?

Rules about paying trustees

Rules about investments

rules about holding land

Who all owns the governing document?

How to close the charity?

Have you decided the name of the charity?

Your charity's name is very important. it will be the brand of your charity and your members.

Name will impact the people who are planning to or looking for donation in your or some other charity.

As charity owner you are the responsible for deciding the right charity name. Charity name should not mislead and also it should not belong to any other charity. It can cause legal issue if you not plan charity name carefully.

Have you recruited the trustees?

If you are recruiting trustees for the very first time then you should take care of prior experience and there understanding and expectations.

The new hire should bring similar values like below:

they should bring new ways of reaching new volunteers and donations

they should have pace with latest technology

they should come with new ideas or contacts which will help in raising fund

How your charity will be funded?

You should have clear ideas about various sources of funding. Sources like corporate network, government opportunities, public events etc.